Hopper oak



A. KASSLER HOPPER CAR Filed Aug. 16, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 25, 1928.

Sept. 25, 1928.

685,089 A. KASSLER HOfPER CAR Filed Aug. 16, 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 arrO/fA/EY.

Sept. 25, 1928. 1,685,089 7 A. KASSLER KOPPER CAR lA/VEN TOR fldov/e Kassier zg qfzm Sept. 25, 1928. 1,685,089

A. KASSLER HOPPER CAR Filed 16, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 1 F155. I I ar/ 63 l I M f. 43 36 44 43 I l 40 l' a 3i: E

Patented Sept. 25, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ADOLPH KASSLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN CAR AND FOUNDRY COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

HOPPER CAR.

Application filed August 16, 1923. Serial No. 657.721.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereot within the scope of the claims will occure to persons skilled in the art.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a car built in accordance with the invention, portions of the hopper and the doors being torn away to more clearly show the door operating mechanism;

Fig. 2 is partly a side elevatit a and partly a sectional view taken on line of Fig. 1 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows, and showing portions of the car and door broken away to show the transmission mechanism and one method oi connecting said transmiss on to the door billppOl -illlg brackets Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows showing a view of the mechanism mounted at the end of one of the doors and a section through the other of the doors showing the transmission mounted for movement therewith;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken transversely of the car showing one end of the door mechanism operating shaft and the worm and gear housing:

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on line 5- 5 of Fig. 4 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows showing the worm and gear and a longitudinal trans mission shai't assembled within the housing;

Figs. (3 to 11. inc.. show the relation between the. longitudinal transmission shatts at opposite sides of the car and their respective gears at different stages of door operation;

Fig. 12 shows a modified form of the door supporting bracket illustrated in Fig. 3 using an equalizing lever for connecting the doors:

Fig. ill is a vertical sectional view through one end ot the equalizing lever and a door supporting arm; and

Fig. H is a plan view of said modified assembly.

My invention relates to door raising and supporting and releasing mechanism for hopper cars having a. single discharge opening closed by a pair of doors hinged to the car sides and has for one of its objects the prov s on of power transmission mechanism positioned out of the path of the discharging ladmg. i

Another and important object is to utilize partof the transmission mechanism for pivotally supporting the doors at the sides of the car, other parts of said transmission being mounted upon and movable with said doors.

A further object is to so apply the door actuating power to the transmission mechanism moving with the doors that the door litting levers at the ends thereof will be operated simultaneously.

In said drawings. 10 represents a hopper car body assembled with a supporting under-- frame comprising side sills 11 made up of outer and inner longitudinal. members if. and 1 respectively. connected by spacing diaphragms H and cover plates 15. Each cover plate l5 extends inwardly from its respective side sill member 13 and is bent downwardlv at 16 to provide a seat and attaching tlan e tor the hopper ide sheet 17 sloping upward ly and outwardly to the side wall plate 18 to the lower margin of which the hopper sheet is secured as best shown in Fig. 23. llcst ng upon the side sill and underlviiig the ho 'iner side sheet 17 are the triangular bracing us sets if) for tran mitting the load on the hog.- per sheet directly to the undcrtramc. l pright connention st rips 20 at the ca r side an i the inside stakes 21 are provided to further tie and brace the structure to withstand the severe service of the ore carrving roads for which service the invention is primirilv d-- signed. i

Connected to the side wall and honpcr side sheets are the sloping end floors 22 at each end of the hopper opening 23 and arranged in am approved manner. The sloping end floor shown in the drawings comprises a central [hinged section and side sections secure'l tnereto. the assembled seqtions being sccurczl to and supported upon a doo supporting bracket 26 connecting a pair ot draft sills 2T ext-ending l'rom thesloping end floor to the :11- end and connected with adjacent bolster 28. Secured to the sloping end floor and side sills are battle plates designed to guide the contents of the ar into the pockets of the ore docks and to prevent the lading from accun'mlating on portions of the (lo-k between the pockets. serving also to keep the.

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wheels and journal boxes free of the discharging material.

The discharge opening 223 is unobstructed by any part of the car framing or door operating mechanism and extends between the hopper side sheets 17 and sloping end floors 2;. The opening is closed and the lading supported by pair of longitudinal doors 3t), their free edges meeting at the center of the ear and pivotally supported at their opposite edges upon brackets 31 secured to the side sills under the inwardly projecting cover plates and the hopper side sheets 17 away from the discharge opening. The doors are stiffened by laterally extending ll'i fies 32 secured to the underside of said doors and spaced apart longitudinally of the doors. T hcse braces 32, or members 3 cured to them, may form the supporting hinges for the doors. The braces 32 are connected at the free edges of the doors by longi tudinal members 3t extending for a least the length of the doors and adapted to trans fer the load upon the doors to the door sup porting brackets 26 on the underframe. To prevent the lading from entering the space under the hopper side sheets 17, the adjacent edges of the doors with their braces :52 are made to extend past the downwardly projecting flange 16 as shown in Fig.

The transmission mechanism comprises a longitudinally arranged shaft '10 journaled in the brackets El on the side sill. Upon this shaft the door hinges are loosely mounted lctween the jaws 35 of the brackets 31 and the doors swung therefrom. This shaft extends from one end of the door to the bolster 7& beyond the opposite end of said door. housing ll on said bolster receives the adjacent end of shaft. it) upon which is loosely mounted for relatively limited rotation a gear wheel Z19 held from movement longitudinally of the shaft by the housing walls l3 in which the end of the shaft *lt) is jourualcd as bestshown in Fig. 5. Secured to the shaft portion within the hub It of the gear wheel 3!) is a driving lug et adapted to enthe opposite faces of :1 lug it? forming part of the bore of the gear wheel 3f). the lug 37 being formed by coring out the wheel hub interior as shown at 36. Figs. 5 to ll. inc.. the lug 44- moving within the cored out portion between the opposite faces of lug 37 for a purpose hereinafter to be described.

At the free edge of the door and movable therewith is mounted a: second transmission ehafi 4-5 iournaled in bearings to positioned at intervals along the door and secured to the stiffening longitudinal member 34 and preferably also to the lateral braces 32. \lper-atively connecting the shafts ift and to about midway the length of the door is a counter-shaft 47. The shafts are connected by gear spiders 48 supporting the countershaft 47 51rd loosely mounted on the parallel shafts and 45. The spiders 48 are each made up of a pair of similar sections 49 comprising a sleeved portion 50 for receiving either of the longitudinal shafts 40 or 45 and a counter-shaft bearing portion 51 at an angle to the sleeved portion 50. The counter shaft bearing portion 51 of each section a half-bearing so that when the sections are assrmbled with the counter-shaft, the halfbearing of each will complement the other to form a complete bearing portion St for the counter-shaft. The sections are held together and to the counter-shaft by means of the interengagilig lugs 52, the lug on one section entering an opening in its companion section. the lugs being threaded for securing nuts 53. It may be desirable in some cases to substitute separate fastening bolts for the lugs 51% but the integral lugs are preferred.

The counter-shaft 47 is provided at its ends with relatively fixed bevel gears 54 in position to mesh with similar gears and 56 mounted respectively on shafts ll) and 45 and fixed for rotation therewith. The gears 54 'espectively engage the inner sides of the gears 55 and 56 so that the shafts 4t) and 443 will have relatively opposite rotation as will be evident. Fixed to the ends of shaft 45 are the door lifting crank arms 57 spaced apart to receive door supporting links 58 pivotally secured by pins 53) to their respective door supporting brackets 26 and by pins Gil to the crank arms. The supporting links 58 are bowed as illustrated to straddle the shaft to permit the shaft .to lie to one side of a. line passing through the center of pivot pins 51) and (it) to lock said shaft against rotatron.

Adjacent one end of the doors is a transversely extending operating shaft (it operable from either side of the car. The shaft is provided with worm gears 62 reversely pitched and arranged to mesh with gears 35) on the door supporting shafts it). The worms are protected by a removable housing portion as secured to housing it by bolts til. the housings combining to provide means insuring meshing engagement of the gears. The operating shaft is journaled at ends in brackets (5:3 in which is also ournaled a pawl shaft 6 carrying a pawl (it for engagement with a ratchet wheel (38 on the operating shaft til. To provide means for throwing the pawl (31' into and out of locking engagement with the ratchet wheel ()8 the pawl shaft is provided with operating handles on which serve also as countcrweights to hold the pawl in locked or released position.

The operating conditions in the ore fields are severe, the ore 'l'requently adhering to the doors in such volume as to prevent the doors from reaching their full closed position. In the case of doors operated simultaneously as here presented, any interruption in the raising: movement of one door will, stop the cont Iii panion door. To meet this difiieulty and to insure further movement of at least one of the doors, there maybe provided an equalizer bar 70 to the ends of which the door supporting links 58 may be pivotally secured. The equalizer bar is pivotally supported by pin 71 on the door supporting bracket 26 as best shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Upon failure of one door to reach full closed position. the bar 70 will be caused to rock on its fulcrum 71, the end of the bar 70 at the lagging door side will move downwardly while the opposite end of said bar will move upwardly carrying with it the opposite door through the medium of the respective crank arms 57 and door supporting links 58. In this embed ment of the invention the door supporting links 58 are provided at their upper ends with jaws 58 straddling the ends of the bar 70 as shown in Figs. 12, 13 and 14.

In operation, assuming the doors to be in their locked raised position, the doors are released by first rotating the pawl shat. (it; to disengage the pawl 67 from the ratchet wheel 68. The operating shaft 61 is then rotated by means of a handle bar (not shown) a r plied to one of the square ends of the shaft. The reversely pitched worms 62 meshing with their respective gears 39 will cause the gears to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrows in Figs. 6 and 7. During this period of movement the gears 39 turn idly upon the shafts 40 until the lugs 37 on the gears reach a position abutting shaft lug H as shown in Figs. (3 and 7, whereupon a further movement of the gears will cause rotation of shafts 4t) and effect simultaneous rotation of countershafts 47 and transmission crank shafts through the medium of the bevel gear connections above described. transmitting the power of the operating shaft ultimately to the crank arms 57.

The rotation of transmission crank shafts 45 will move the crank arms 57 until the line passing through crank pins (it) and door supporting link pins shifts to the opposite side of the deadwentcr position of the crank shaft 45 causing the crank arms and links to progressively assume the several, positions during the movement of the doors to their dropped open position. all as indicated in broken lines in Figs. 3 and 12. In the locked positions of cranks and links they lie substantially at right angles to the underside of the door with crank shaft center between the line eoincidin .51 with the centers of crank pins (it) and link pins 59 and the links thereby directly supporting the doors and relieving all the shafts of all torsional stresses when the doors are in their closed position. As the doors move to their open position under the weight of the load. the transmission shafts will rotate in the relatively opposite directions indicated by the arrows in Figs. 8 and 9, causing their respective lugs 44; to race away from the lugs 37 on the gears 39 which, with the operating shaft 61, remain relatively stationary during such movement of the transmission mechanism and doors. Such movement of doors and transmission mechanism independently of the operating shaft will prevent injury to the operator resulting from the wresting of the operating handle from his grasp upon starting of the mechanism since such movement is not communicated to the operating shaft. A reverse rotation of the operating shaft will cause the sin'iultaneous movement of transmission shafts and their respective gears from the position shown in Figs. 8 and 9 to the initial locked position of said parts as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, the gears rotating in the direction indicated by the arrows in said last mentioned figures. This operation raises the doors and restores the crank arms and links to their locked position as best shown in full lines in Figs. 3 and 12. The pawl shaft is then rotated to throw the locking pawl into engagement with the ratchet wheel.

Due to the relatively low side of the car and the position of the locking mechanism it is diflicult at times to determine whether or not the doors have reached their locked positions. To provide a simple means for indicating the locked position of the doors there is provided on opposite sides of the car a device in the nature of a semaphore comprising a bar preferably sleeved on shaft 40 and fixed to rotate therewith by set-screw 76. This bar is so adjusted initially that it wiil l c against the side sills 11 when the doors have reached their locked position, all as indicated in Figs. 3 and 12. "hen the doors are 1111- locked the semaphore will stand away from the side sill and will not be visible, which fact will convey to the operator the information that the doors are not raised or, if rased, are not locked.

From the foregoing it will be noted that each door of the pair used is provided with its own transmission mechanism, being connected to the transmi 1on of the other door for simultaneous operation through the medium only of the operating shaft (31; that the transmission mechanism of each door is for the greater part positioned within the area of the door and away from the door opening; and that the power is applied to the trans mission crank shaft 45 midwav its length thereby minimizing the torsiolhil stresses in the shaft between the point of application of power, the counter-shaft position. and the crank arms.

hat I claim is:

l. i\ hopper ar having a single discharge opening and a pair of longitudinallv an ranged drop doors hinged at the car sidcs and closing said opening, transmission mechanism carried by said doors, an operating shaft adjacent one end of said doors and run rie necting the transmission mechanism of one door to the other, and loose connections between said operating shaft and transmission mechanism.

2. In a dump car having a plurality of drop doors, door lifting mechanism carried by said doors and including a crank shaft, and counter-shaft mechanism connected with said crank shaft and movable with said doors.

3. In a door operating mechanism for cars having a single unobstructed discharge opening and a pair of drop doors closing said opening, separate door raising mechanisms having portions movable with said doors, each of said mechanisms including a crankshaft, and counter-shaft mechanism connected to said crank shaft, portions of said door raising mechanism being adapted to pivotally support said doors and counter-shaft.

4. In a hopper car comprising a single dis charge opening, sloping end floors and hopper side sheets defining said opening, a pair of drop doors pivoted longitudinally of said opening, a supporting underframe, and door lifting mechanism comprising shafts movable with said doors and operating shafts supported on said underframe and having said doors pivotally mounted thereon.

5. A door operating mechanism for cars having a single unobstructed discharge opening and a plurality of drop doors closing said opening comprising power transmissions having portions movably mounted on said doors, operating shafts of said transmission mechanism being adapted to pivotally supiort said doors.

6. The combination with the drop doors of a dump car having a single discharge opening, of door actuating mechanism having portions supported by and movable with said doors. operating shafts of said actuating mechanism pivotally supporting said doors.

7. In a hopper car having a single discharge opening and a supporting underframe, power transmission mechanism having operating shafts supported on said underframe adjacent said opening, and a pair of drop doors closing said opening and mounted upon said shafts, other portions of said mechanism being mounted upon and movable with said doors.

8. In a hopper car having hopperside and sloping end floor sheets defining a single dis charge opeuigg. a supporting undertrame. a pair of longitudinally arranged doors closing said opening. door supporting brackets connecting the sloping end floor sheets and un derframc. and door lifting mechanism moving with said doors and having pivotal connection with said brackets.

9. In a hopper car having hopper side and sloping end floor sheets defining a single discharge opening, a supporting underframe, a pair of longitudinally arranged doors closing said opening, door supporting brackets connecting the sloping end floor sheets and under-frame, and door lifting mechanism supported on said underframe and movable with said doors, said mechanism having pivotal connection with said brackets.

10. In a hopper car having a single discharge opening, a supporting underframe, a pair of longitudinally arranged doors closing said opening, door supporting brackets connecting said hopper and underframe, separate door actuating mechanism for each door comprising a door supporting shaft, a par allel crank shaft journaled on the door at the free edge thereof, a counter-shaft supported upon and operatively connecting said shafts, crank arms at the ends of said crank shafts, door supporting links connecting said crank arms and door supporting brackets, and a common operating shaft connecting the door supporting shafts.

11. In a car provided with a hopper having a single discharge opening, a supporting underframe, a pair of longitudinal drop doors hinged at the car side for closing said opening, door lifting mechanism supported on said underframe and movable with said doors, door supporting brackets connecting said underframe and hopper, equalizing bars pivotally mounted on said brackets, and crank arms and supporting links pivotally connecting said equalizing bars to the door lifting mechanism.

12. A hopper car having a single discharge opening and a pair of longitudinally arranged drop doors hinged at the car sides and closing said opening, door lifting mechanism including a shaft for pivotally supporting said doors, and a semaphore bar fixed for rotation with said shaft and adjusted to a predetermined position with respect to the car when the doors are in their locked raised position.

13. In a door operating mechanism for cars having a pair of longitudinally arranged drop doors, door raising mechanism comprising a door supporting shaft and a parallel crank shaft, a counter-shaft between said door supporting and crank shafts. and gear spider elements connecting said shafts.

14. In a car having a single discharge opening and a plurality of drop-doors closing said opening, a door-operating mechanism comprising door-operating shafts pivotally connecting said doors to the car body, said doors being freely movable upon said shafts.

15. In a car having a discharge opening, a door-operating shaft rotatably mounted adjacent said opening and a door for said opening freely mounted on said shaft.

16. In a car having a discharge opening. a dooroperating shaft rotatably mounted adjacent said opening. a door for said opening freely mounted on said shaft and means mounted on said door operatively connecting said shaft and door.

17. In a hopper car having hopper side and sloping end floor sheets defining a single discharge opening, a supporting underframe, a pair of longitudinally arranged doors closing said opening, door-supporting brackets, connecting the sloping end floor sheets and under-frame, door lifting mechanism comprising shafts moving with said doors and crank arms carried by said shafts and means connecting said crank arms and door-supporting brackets.

' 18. In a car provided with a hopper having a discharge opening, a supporting underfrainc, drop-doors for closing said opening, door-supporting brackets connecting said under-frame and hopper, shafts carried by said doors, crank arms carried by said shafts and means connecting said crank arms and door-supporting brackets.

19. In a car provided with a hopper having a discharge opening, a supporting underframe, drop-doors for closing said opening, door-supporting brackets connecting said underframe and hopper, shafts carried by said doors, crank arms carried by said shafts, means connecting said crank arms and doorsupporting brackets and operating shafts for said crank shafts pivolally connecting said doors and underframe.

20. In a dump car, drop doors, door operating mechanism comprising crank and counter shafts carried by said doors and operating shafts for said counter shafts pivotally supporting said doors.

21. In a dump car, an underframe, drop doors, door operating mechanism comprising crank shafts carried by said doors, cranks carricd by said crank shafts, means connecting said cranks to said underframe and means for operating said crank shafts pivotally supporting said doors.

22. In a dump car, a door operating shaft, a door operated by said shaft and pivotally mounted thereon and a semaphore bar carried by said shaft.

23. In a dump car, a door operating shaft and a door operated thereby and rotatably mounted thereon.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

ADOLPH KASSLER.

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